During a special legislative session ending June 2, 2017,
the Florida legislature passed Senate Bill 8-A (“SB 8-A”), authored by Senator
Bradley, amending Florida's medical marijuana laws to reflect the 2016 passage
of Section 29 to Article X of the Florida Constitution (commonly referred to as
“Amendment 2”). This comes after Florida
lawmakers failed to reach a consensus on how to implement the amendment during
the regular legislative session, leaving physicians, dispensing organizations, entrepreneurs,
employers, attorneys, and patients wondering how to reconcile the incongruent
requirements of Amendment 2 with Florida’s existing medical marijuana
laws. Governor Rick Scott, to whom the
bill was presented on June 19, 2017, has indicated that he plans to sign the
bill into law. Notwithstanding these
significant developments at the state level, recent statements by Attorney
General Jeff Sessions serve as a sobering reminder that medical marijuana remains
illegal under federal law despite the Federal Government’s prior position on
non-interference with state medical marijuana systems.iii

While portions of the bill’s language will likely be
challenged in court, passage of the bill provides the integral framework
necessary for impacted persons and businesses to begin moving forward with the
conduct permitted by Amendment 2. As set
forth more fully below, the bill contains numerous provisions of significant
interest to potential patients, Florida physicians ordering or interested in
ordering medical marijuana for patients, and entrepreneurs. Although the bill delivers an overarching
structure for a more strong and effective medical marijuana regulatory system
in state , additional details remain to be determined by the Florida Department
of Health (“FDOH”). The bill tasks the
FDOH with drafting various regulations necessary for implementation of the
forthcoming revised statutes, including but not limited to rules: regarding
recommended daily dose amounts, for medical marijuana treatment center
sanitization, regarding storage and handling of medical marijuana related
waste, and setting forth permitted and prohibited shapes, forms, and
ingredients for edible medical marijuana products.

Patients and
Physicians

Like the statutes it amends, SB 8-A continues to prohibit
administration of medical marijuana by smoking.
However, the amended law now includes the ten qualifying conditions set
forth in Amendment 2iv, and removes the 90-day waiting period required under
the prior law. The revised statutes
will harmonize terms from the state’s prior medical marijuana laws with
vocabulary found in Amendment 2, such as replacing use of the term “order” with
“physician certification” for medical marijuana, and specifying the
requirements for issuing and obtaining such certification. The bill also details information that
qualified physicians are required to provide to patients (and parents or legal
guardians of minor patients) to constitute adequate informed consent prior to
issuing a physician certification.
Qualified physicians will be able to issue physician certifications for
three 70-day supply limits of marijuana, up from the prior 45-day supply
limitation. According to language in the
bill, the FDOH is required to quantify by rule a daily dose amount for each
allowable form of medical marijuana to be dispensed by a medical marijuana
treatment center, which will be used to calculate the 70-day supply. Qualified physicians will also be able to
submit electronic requests for exceptions to the daily dose amount limits under
certain circumstances.

Entrepreneurs

Pursuant to the new bill, the FDOH is required to issue
"medical marijuana treatment center" licenses to any entity holding
an active, unrestricted license to cultivate, process, transport, and dispense
low-THC cannabis, medical cannabis, and cannabis delivery devices under the former
laws, by July 1, 2017. Additionally, the
FDOH is required to issue 10 more licenses to medical marijuana treatment
center applicants by October 3, 2017, with special preference given to certain
applicants who: applied under the former medical marijuana statute, own
facilities used for canning/concentrating or otherwise processing citrus fruit,
and/or are recognized class members of two ongoing class action lawsuits. Once patient registration in the medical
marijuana use registry reaches 100,000, the FDOH is required to issue 4 more
medical marijuana treatment center licenses within 6 months, and to do the same
for each additional 100,000 active qualified patients added to the
registry. Notably, license holders will
be permitted to open up to 25 dispensaries across the state, which number may
increase as more patients are added to the registry as described in the amended
law. Additionally, the new bill permits
license holders to buy and sell allotted dispensary numbers from other
licensees. Thus, it is possible that
some license holders will be able to open more than 25 dispensaries under a
single license.

Like the prior law, the new bill provides instructions and
minimum requirements for license applications and renewals, including
requirements that each applicant: has been registered to do business in Florida
for five consecutive years prior to submitting an application; has the
necessary infrastructure, technology, and resources; and has the financial
ability to operate as a medical marijuana treatment center. Licensed medical marijuana treatment centers
will be required to cultivate, process, transport, and dispense medical
marijuana for medical use, and may not contract for services directly related
to the foregoing, except under certain limited circumstances described in the
law. License holders may only transfer
ownership of such a medical marijuana treatment center to individuals or
entities who meet the requirements set forth in the bill. Individuals and entities who directly or
indirectly own, control, or hold power to vote 5 percent or more of the voting
shares of a medical marijuana treatment center may not acquire direct or
indirect ownership or control of any voting shares in any other medical
marijuana treatment center. The new law
also provides detailed requirements for the inspection and treatment of plants,
medical marijuana packing, and regarding production of edible forms of medical
marijuana.

The views expressed in this document are solely the views of the author and not Martindale-Hubbell. This document is intended for informational purposes only and is not legal advice or a substitute for consultation with a licensed legal professional in a particular case or circumstance.

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